Electric Violet Mums

Chrysanthemum Indicum. Herbaceous Perennial Flowering Plants. Known for their variety in appearance and color. Colloquially known as Mums.

The words systematically filtered through the android's mind as she sat alone on a bench. Her neck was craned at a bizarre sideways angle as her eyes adjusted and readjusted to take in the entirety of the foliage around her. Her mouth formed words that didn't leave her throat as her own thoughts were pushed aside for familiar memories. Her face contorted into a strange combination of happiness, sadness, and confusion as she returned to a normal sitting position and stared at the distant skyline.

Remember June, you must always be mindful of how you behave around others. They will always notice, so you must always be devoting thought processes to it.

These thoughts that were hers and not hers at the same time brought her a small amount of pain as gears and servos whirred behind her eyes. She had read over the concept of memories many times, but their ability to evoke strange sensations made it more difficult for her to directly allocate processing routines to specific tasks. As she thought of this, she reached a metallic hand over to the shrub of mums and plucked a handful of them. Unceremoniously, she brought them to her face and sniffed them a few times. Her face had returned to a passive unemotional state as she began caressing the bulbous flowers across her face.

"Soft. Pleasant Smell. Dr. Frei's favorites. Preferred over genus Glebionis 78.3% of the time."

As Juniper brought the flowers away from her face, she re-allocated thought processes to her own actions and their impact on those around her and immediately felt a strange sensation at the base of her synthetic skull. Something akin to fear that others might have seen her. How they might laugh and think she was strange. Suddenly very conscious as to her own actions and their unacceptable nature, she stuffed the flowers in her knapsack and pulled her hooded sweatshirt tighter around her steel body. Maybe nobody had noticed.

She sank deeper under her hood as she stared at the dirt stains on her ratty blue jeans and visualized the map of the Starlight Academy grounds that she'd been given upon arriving. Sooner or later, she knew, she was going to have to leave this bench and find her way. Confusion crept back in as she found herself lingering in the garden for no apparent reason.

Juniper sat and stared at her knees as her mind whirred through various different assessments and calculations. Memories of her father and her life inside the cramped workshop flitted in and out as each one was internally tabulated and cataloged for the umpteenth time. Assessments re-imagined and recalculated, each time with a slightly different conclusion. The ever-changing results were yet another thing in this strange world that baffled the girl's mechanical brain. Her creator had made her to be more human than many others of her kind, but what that really meant still eluded her. These memories were a persistent reminder of that fact. Silently, she had come to the conclusion that she needed a wider data pool to draw from.

Almost as if on cue, a kind voice signaled out from in front of her. A small sound that nonetheless made her almost jump from surprise. Immediately, she stiffened up and lifted her gaze to look at this curious inquisitor.

"Good morning. Are you a new student here too?"

"A.. new student?" she said hesitantly before quickly regaining her passive composure. "Yes. I was sent here to be a student at Starlight Academy. Your vernacular indicates that you are also new. Hello."

The hooded girl stood up swiftly from the bench and bowed a low bow, just as she was taught. As she straightened back up, she leaned forward and without blinking began scanning the person before her.

With her face uncomfortably close to this newcomer, "Please do not be alarmed. I am not staring. I am merely scanning your internal mechanisms for categorization and classification. This unit is T-X-K-Zero. My father called me Juniper."

June's eyes pierced the android before her as she blinked for the first time. Information scrolled through her vision as the soft sound of whizzing machinery stirred from somewhere behind her throat. After several moments, she pulled back and processed what she'd managed to glean. In truth, it wasn't a whole lot to go on. A variety of mechanical errors and faults had blurred her vision slightly and signaled their failure. The best she'd gotten was that this girl was clearly not organic in nature.

She blinked several more times as she offered a wide and silly grin out of nowhere. "Yes. I am an autonomous bipedal android. I was sent here to... learn." Her grin disappeared as she brought up her hand between them. She clicked her elongated and pointed mechanical fingers as the metallic hand spun about on her wrist for several turns. "I am to expand my knowledge in developing new innovations for the betterment of all." She frowned slightly. "And learn how to achieve greater levels of humanity."

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Atropha Model: D-3. I am not your mother, but may I call you Belladonna Evita? Informality is a hallmark of friendship, correct? You are... also here to acquire more knowledge?"

Juniper smiled a small smile as she thought about how different it must be to have been created without having your purpose handed to you. Ever since the time of her first activation, she's always had her compass firmly fixed in a particular direction. Over time, she'd come to realize that her autonomous nature allows for the self-governance over her prime directives and core programming. There just never seemed to be a reason to change it. How odd that a being wouldn't know what they were meant for from the very beginning. Could it be that this other android has more in common with natural lifeforms than is apparent? This Belladonna Evita? No, just Belladonna. Surnames are typically omitted.

The hooded figure bent slightly to one side and grabbed a hold of her knapsack and slung it over one shoulder as she spoke, "Relief seems to be an appropriate response to finding that our paths run parallel and yet are separate. You are a most fascinating being and are now my friend." A gear whizzed quietly somewhere within June's chest as her face was practically beaming. "Perhaps you would accompany me as I walk the grounds and gain firsthand orientation, Belladonna? ...Oh!"

A sudden tagline of recollection scrolled across June's mind as she quickly turned around and used her fingers to snip several more mums from the bunch. She was much more careful with her second bouquet of flowers as they disappeared into her sack. Somewhere inside she hoped that they'd go undamaged until she could get them into an appropriate vessel.

The android girl in the hoodie seemed to perk up a bit at Belladonna's acceptance of her invitation. While her face had resumed its usual passive, emotionless state, her step had slightly more spring than before. Somewhere inside she felt a small boost to her energy levels, despite their diagnostic still pinging at the same rate as before. Perhaps a psychological benefit to her improved social situation? She was unsure, but it was an interesting footnote regardless.

"So Belladonna, would it be imprudent of me to inquire as to the mother you mentioned?" She'd begun walking away from the bench as she was talking. "I never had a mother. Only my father and creator, Dr. Frei. I am curious as to whether a mother is a similar experience. Many textbooks speak on the relevance of both parental positions in the development of a child, but aren't we very different from normal children?"

Almost absentmindedly, she looked to the sky and felt a soft breeze across her face. With it came the soft smell of various flowers. She detected them and their pleasant scent, but was unsure what that pleasure meant to the average person. To her, they meant home.

"Mums were his favorite," she mused out loud.